Gubmint work is a good deal in Midland, Texas

While state officials and congressmen, awash in lobbyist money, are using twenty-dollar bills to light the $100 bills they use to light their cigars*, getting elected to office in a small community is a thankless job.

First, you have to work for a living. And then, if you actually make a decision, you have to hear about it everywhere you go, because you live amongst the voters and they’re the folks fixing your car, bagging your groceries and servicing you in a cheap motel on the edge of town.

Both are right, but after Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, nuclear power suffers from the same stigma as the guy in that classic dirty joke, which I will sanitize for my readers (both of them): “You can build bridges and highways and make the world a better place, but if you host one stupid game how, everyone’s going to call you a game show host.”

The Twitter death watch has startedHere’s a blog in which the writer buried the lead, to wit: Twitter may not survive. You have to burrow down to the last two paragraphs to find this out. He argues that Twitter is growing, as is micro-blogging, but the quality of the service isn’t. Plus, Google is getting good at Twitter searches, which is like setting up shop in Twitter’s backyard.

Carl Spackler would be proudNight vision goggles for the home are getting cheaper and better. This is good news if you’re hunting rats, moving the sprinklers at midnight, or stalking that cute single parent down the street, I guess.